The top-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey (16-0-0) team continued its perfect season this weekend with a sweep of the then-No. 7 Cornell Big Red. Wisconsin is off to its second best start in school history, only behind the 2015-’16 team’s eighteen consecutive wins to start the season. The Badgers were mainly led by the play of forwards Sophia Shaver and Presley Norby this weekend. It was their efforts that propelled Wisconsin to its fifth and sixth straight wins against ranked opponents.
To say Shaver dominated game one would be an understatement. The junior forward put two goals into the net on Saturday pushing the Badgers to their fifteenth straight victory. Shaver opened up the scoring halfway through the first period with a solid wrist shot off a Mikaela Gardner pass giving the Badgers a 1-0 lead. Shaver wasn’t done with her scoring just yet however.
Just as the second period was starting, Shaver let one loose through a mess of players and past goalie Marlene Boissonnault to snag her second goal of the night. Wisconsin would then go up 3-0 off of a rebound put back in by sophomore forward Alexis Mauermann. Cornell would go on to score at the end of the second period putting the score at 3-1.
Even though the third period lacked scoring, it ended up being the most impressive period for Wisconsin. Facing a grueling 5-on-3 powerplay for Cornell, the Badgers penalty kill tightened up and came up huge allowing no goals to Cornell. The penalty kill team would be called on once again in the final minute, facing another Cornell powerplay with a pulled goalie. Its 6-on-4 chance would once again fall short of scoring due to the incredible play of Wisconsin while shorthanded. The Badgers would go on to win 3-1.
Game two was one of the more competitive game the Badgers had played thus far this season. But Wisconsin would be the victors once again winning its sixteenth straight game, on the back of goals by Brette Pettet and Norby.
The scoring started after a relatively quiet first period with a Pettet rocket past Boissonnault to put the Badgers up 1-0. Pettet can thank forward Abby Roque and defender Lauren Williams for the assists on that goal.
The scoring would halt again until six minutes left in the third when Norby scored off a rebound to claim the game winning goal and put Wisconsin up 2-0.
The name of the game for the Badgers was once again their penalty kill. This time having to kill 14 minutes of shorthanded play. While they did let up a goal this time around, it was on a 6-on-3 powerplay with 12.1 seconds left. Prior to their goal, Wisconsin had held Cornell scoreless for about a minute on the 6-on-3 powerplay really showing the strength of its penalty kill team.
The penalty killers would be nothing without sophomore goalie Kristen Campbell however. Along with the Badgers, Campbell improved to 16-0-0 on the season, while sporting an NCAA-leading .94 goals against average and a first place save percentage of .951. In the end, Campbell would stop 26 shots and Wisconsin would win 2-1 and improved to a still perfect 16-0-0 on the season.
Wisconsin now moves into its much needed bye week, coming off of six straight victories against ranked teams. The Badgers will look to rest up in the coming week before traveling to Washington D.C. to play Northeastern and Boston University Thanksgiving weekend.
